I think the reason for dropping WiFi routers (and certain other products) is pretty clear: Apple wants to focus on products that make use of Apple developed hardware technologies that can be leveraged against the competition and provide better competitive differentiation. Cinema Display? Same reason.
Much higher pricing of mesh routers would appeal to Apple from a business standpoint
Users seem to understand (better) the need for a quality, powerful, and secure router system
The most popular players in the market have considerably less expertise than Apple
There are a lot more Apple customers today than when they started offering routers
The general market for routers is much higher than it used to be
Apple has a leg up due to the customer trust that they've earned.
Why would Apple recommend a direct mesh competitor (Linksys Velop), one which they recently put into their stores, if they soon planned on selling their own mesh product? Neither makes sense, so I don’t think we’ll see an Apple mesh product announced at WWDC.
1) I don't think we'll see an Apple mesh router system on WWDC either; only that I'm not given up hope just yet.
2) Apple has a long history of selling competitor's items at their stores before they get into a market, and even continue selling such items after the fact. Off the top my head, I think you'l find home speakers, headphones, cases, and cables with Apple branding and competitor branding on their App Store.
Why is Tim Cook cutting off such a vital piece of internet and home network connectivity is short sighted, granted it has been stagnated for more than a few years now. They had the engineering talent to improve on the technologies and functionality of these units and Apple had had alot to offer in the router/modem space especially to Apple customers. This is yet another in a list of items that Tim Cook hasn't been interested in since becoming CEO.
It's called focusing your efforts whee it matters most and not getting distracted. Facts are, many people get routers for free from their ISP. There's very little an Apple router can do that others can't and they are certainly NOT critical to Apple's ecosystem. Routers are the equivalent of printers and there's a reason Apple doesn't bother with printers. They probably looked at the very crowded space and determined there was very little they could add to the mix that would justify the resources.
I suspect the fact that broadband ISPs include an integrated wi-fi router with their cable or dsl modem now is also a factor.
I still have my 2TB time capsule on my home-lan, but it has it's wi-fi disabled as I am using the supplied cable modem/router with 1 gigabit broadband on the wan side, and dual band gigabit wi-fi. .
Last year, after some urging from Comcast Xfinity, I got an Arris combo cable modem and wireless router to replace my 5th gen AirPort Extreme and old old Moto Surfboard modem.
Installed it, and the WiFi coverage through the house sucked versus the old 5th gen AirPort Extreme. Went from good coverage at the corners of the house to barely there to no signal.
Reverted right back to the old Surfboard and 5th gen AirPort Extreme. Last month, upgraded the cable modem service to 150 Mb/s and a 6th gen AirPort Extreme with 802.11ac. WiFi coverage was better than before. Comcast still gets bandwidth constrained Friday evenings though.
Sad to see Apple not offering there own solution anymore. The 6th gen has the transformer unit built in and doesn’t need a power brick and doesn’t use a combo power brick with built in plug, which inevitably results in losing 2 or 3 outlets on the power strip like all the other devices I have do.
The more I think about this, the more puzzling it seems...
As Apple moves away from wired connections and towards wireless pretty much everything, why would they abandon a key piece of that infrastructure? And that becomes even more puzzling when it's realized that home wireless is a complete mess: Holes in the coverage, weak coverage and ongoing security concerns. It is an area crying out for the kind of quality, well thought out solutions that Apple excels in.
I can think of only one possible explanation: Apple sees the home cable / WiFi protocol as a dying technology soon to be replaced with 5G wireless everything, everywhere....
I'm late to the party here, but have a genuine question: can anyone recommend a reliable, well supported wifi router that can handle a VPN service? It'd be kinda nice to have all the wifi traffic on a router go though a VPN service. Suggestions?
A second tech question: I'd kinda like to test some of these new wifi routers before my airports become untenable, but I dislike the idea of disconnecting the latter before I need to. What device can I put between a cable modem and multiple routers? I don't think I can daisy chain these things. I'd like to put up a second wifi router on that same modem to test it. TIA.
If I have to turn to third party solutions for my local network, doesn’t that make it even easier to turn to other parties for phones, tablets and computers?
No because I guarantee you that most users of Apple products already use a non-Apple router. Were an all Apple household except 2 PC's used for gaming and we switched from a Time Capsule to a Linksys router. If you get a good router (not a $39 one) it will make absolutely no difference at all when using it just like it does today with most users of Apple products.
While there's lots of feel good stories here (of course there is on an Apple site), I'm sure in the end, these were not big sellers. Only Apple knows this of course. We can try and justify keeping them around all we want by saying I have one and so does everyone in my family or whatever, but I'm sure Apple knows the real sales numbers if this happens to be the case. Or, quite possibly they just didn't want to venture down this road anymore. It happens! They can focus on other things and let 3rd parties do the work.
Shame. Current implementation is bombproof. I'll be snatching up several of the refurbs, not that these break a lot but I'd rather stick with them as along as we can.
I'm late to the party here, but have a genuine question: can anyone recommend a reliable, well supported wifi router that can handle a VPN service? It'd be kinda nice to have all the wifi traffic on a router go though a VPN service. Suggestions?
A second tech question: I'd kinda like to test some of these new wifi routers before my airports become untenable, but I dislike the idea of disconnecting the latter before I need to. What device can I put between a cable modem and multiple routers? I don't think I can daisy chain these things. I'd like to put up a second wifi router on that same modem to test it. TIA.
Sure you can. You can use WDS to do it wirelessly, or an ethernet cable from your main router to all the others. I recommend the latter.
I remember when Apple discontinued laser and inkjet printers! I also remember when they discontinued digital cameras, and Newton and eMate PDAs. Things come to an end. Apple could do a lot better about communicating -why- things are coming to an end, and what to do about supporting those products that are out there, but it's not impossible for Apple to EOL a product.
I'm late to the party here, but have a genuine question: can anyone recommend a reliable, well supported wifi router that can handle a VPN service? It'd be kinda nice to have all the wifi traffic on a router go though a VPN service. Suggestions?
A second tech question: I'd kinda like to test some of these new wifi routers before my airports become untenable, but I dislike the idea of disconnecting the latter before I need to. What device can I put between a cable modem and multiple routers? I don't think I can daisy chain these things. I'd like to put up a second wifi router on that same modem to test it. TIA.
Sure you can. You can use WDS to do it wirelessly, or an ethernet cable from your main router to all the others. I recommend the latter.
Really. So I can tie a new wifi router to the WAN port on the airport with an ethernet cable, and then set up the new wifi router independently? The new router won't get confused as to IP addresses and subnet this and freak out subnet that?
I'm late to the party here, but have a genuine question: can anyone recommend a reliable, well supported wifi router that can handle a VPN service? It'd be kinda nice to have all the wifi traffic on a router go though a VPN service. Suggestions?
A second tech question: I'd kinda like to test some of these new wifi routers before my airports become untenable, but I dislike the idea of disconnecting the latter before I need to. What device can I put between a cable modem and multiple routers? I don't think I can daisy chain these things. I'd like to put up a second wifi router on that same modem to test it. TIA.
Sure you can. You can use WDS to do it wirelessly, or an ethernet cable from your main router to all the others. I recommend the latter.
Really. So I can tie a new wifi router to the WAN port on the airport with an ethernet cable, and then set up the new wifi router independently? The new router won't get confused as to IP addresses and subnet this and freak out subnet that?
As long as the wi-fi access point downstream of your main router is in bridge mode, you're good to go. I mean... network configuration is a bit more complicated than this, and I do recommend reading up on it a bit. But the upshot is as long as you have one DHCP supplier, and the rest of your access points in bridge with some configurations the same, you should be set.
Google something like extending your wireless range with another router or something similar. There's a few ways to do it.
I'm late to the party here, but have a genuine question: can anyone recommend a reliable, well supported wifi router that can handle a VPN service? It'd be kinda nice to have all the wifi traffic on a router go though a VPN service. Suggestions?
A second tech question: I'd kinda like to test some of these new wifi routers before my airports become untenable, but I dislike the idea of disconnecting the latter before I need to. What device can I put between a cable modem and multiple routers? I don't think I can daisy chain these things. I'd like to put up a second wifi router on that same modem to test it. TIA.
Sure you can. You can use WDS to do it wirelessly, or an ethernet cable from your main router to all the others. I recommend the latter.
Really. So I can tie a new wifi router to the WAN port on the airport with an ethernet cable, and then set up the new wifi router independently? The new router won't get confused as to IP addresses and subnet this and freak out subnet that?
As long as the wi-fi access point downstream of your main router is in bridge mode, you're good to go. I mean... network configuration is a bit more complicated than this, and I do recommend reading up on it a bit. But the upshot is as long as you have one DHCP supplier, and the rest of your access points in bridge with some configurations the same, you should be set.
Google something like extending your wireless range with another router or something similar. There's a few ways to do it.
OK, thanks. I actually have remotes in bridge mode (other airports) but what I'd like to do is plug the modem into something, then plug two independent wifi routers into that. I suspect it's not possible. The idea is to test a new wifi router without gumming up an existing network.
I do appreciate the help, and know that isn't what the forum is for. But...if airports are losing support, best to be prepared.
I never thought an article chronicling the evolution of a tech product would get me a little misty-eyed, but your writing captures the nostalgia of an era very well.
The AirPort line and Apple’s early adoption of Wi-Fi and USB technology was one of a number of facets of the Steve Jobs era that made Apple, Apple. Sad to see the end of AirPort products.
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2) Apple has a long history of selling competitor's items at their stores before they get into a market, and even continue selling such items after the fact. Off the top my head, I think you'l find home speakers, headphones, cases, and cables with Apple branding and competitor branding on their App Store.
Installed it, and the WiFi coverage through the house sucked versus the old 5th gen AirPort Extreme. Went from good coverage at the corners of the house to barely there to no signal.
Reverted right back to the old Surfboard and 5th gen AirPort Extreme. Last month, upgraded the cable modem service to 150 Mb/s and a 6th gen AirPort Extreme with 802.11ac. WiFi coverage was better than before. Comcast still gets bandwidth constrained Friday evenings though.
Sad to see Apple not offering there own solution anymore. The 6th gen has the transformer unit built in and doesn’t need a power brick and doesn’t use a combo power brick with built in plug, which inevitably results in losing 2 or 3 outlets on the power strip like all the other devices I have do.
Apple sees the home cable / WiFi protocol as a dying technology soon to be replaced with 5G wireless everything, everywhere....
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/lrm22/airport/airport.html
Now ... No more Apple monitor. No more Apple Airport. No more updates to the Mac Pro. Not much left to drop.
A second tech question: I'd kinda like to test some of these new wifi routers before my airports become untenable, but I dislike the idea of disconnecting the latter before I need to. What device can I put between a cable modem and multiple routers? I don't think I can daisy chain these things. I'd like to put up a second wifi router on that same modem to test it. TIA.
While there's lots of feel good stories here (of course there is on an Apple site), I'm sure in the end, these were not big sellers. Only Apple knows this of course. We can try and justify keeping them around all we want by saying I have one and so does everyone in my family or whatever, but I'm sure Apple knows the real sales numbers if this happens to be the case. Or, quite possibly they just didn't want to venture down this road anymore. It happens! They can focus on other things and let 3rd parties do the work.
I do appreciate the help, and know that isn't what the forum is for. But...if airports are losing support, best to be prepared.
I never thought an article chronicling the evolution of a tech product would get me a little misty-eyed, but your writing captures the nostalgia of an era very well.
The AirPort line and Apple’s early adoption of Wi-Fi and USB technology was one of a number of facets of the Steve Jobs era that made Apple, Apple. Sad to see the end of AirPort products.